Larvae of dengue spreading mosquito found in MLA hostel

Amidst burgeoning menace of Dengue in the state capital, a team of district health department found thousands of larvae of Aedes mosquito in the upend MLAs’ hostel. Aedes mosquito is the vector of dengue virus. The health department teams found the larvae in the desert coolers placed in the residences of the legislatures. The reporting of larvae laced with dengue virus not only shows lack of awareness among the legislatures and their families but also puts a question mark over the health department’s tall claims about anti dengue activities. Incidentally, the high security MLA hostel is in vicinity of the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun and is located in the posh Race Course area of the city. On Friday, Vijaya Rawat wife of Kedarnath MLA, Manoj Rawat was diagnosed with dengue. The family of the MLA resides in the MLA hostel.

The District Vector Borne diseases officer Subhash Joshi told The Pioneer that the team of the department decanted all the coolers and other things where water was accumulated. He said that extensive fogging was undertaken in the entire premises of MLA hostel and nearby areas on the day. A team of the health department also visited Asthal village of Raipur on Saturday. The team led by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr S K Gupta inspected many areas of the village and undertook source reduction activity.

The CMO said that team of health department are visiting the affected areas and activities like fogging and spread of insecticides are being undertaken apart from spreading awareness on preventive measures to be adopted for the disease. He said that people should ensure that the breeding places of mosquitoes inside their homes and vicinity are destroyed. Dr Gupta added that Aedes mosquitoes – the vector of dengue- are capable to lay their eggs in one spoonful of water so the pots, vases, water bottles and coolers should be decanted regularly. He suggested that since , Aedes mosquito bites during day time it is advisable that everyone should wear full sleeve clothes to reduce exposure of their body for the mosquito to bite.

The symptoms of Dengue are persistently high fever, rashes, headache and pain in the joints. In the acute cases the platelets number decrease drastically which could prove fatal for the patient.

35 new dengue cases reported

The menace of dengue is continuing unabated in Dehradun as the state health department reported 34 new cases of the disease on Saturday. With these cases, the number of dengue affected patients in Dehradun this season has climbed to 316. On the day, five cases of the disease each were reported from Raipur and Aamwala areas. Similarly three more cases of the disease were reported from dengue infested Vani Vihar. The health department has set up special dengue wards in different hospitals of the city. In Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital 14 patients are undergoing treatment while in Gandhi Centenary hospital 12 patients are admitted. In Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya ( Coronation ) hospital, three patients of the disease are undergoing treatment.